Commercial sharing platforms have reshaped the transportation and housing sectors in cities and raised challenges for urban policy makers seeking to balance market disruption with community protections. Transformational sharing seeks to strengthen the urban commons to address social justice, equity and sustainability. This paper uses Transformative Social Innovation theory to develop a comparative analysis of Shareable’s Sharing Cities Network and Airbnb’s Home Sharing Clubs. It argues that narrative framing of the sharing economy for community empowerment and grassroots mobilisation have been used by Shareable to drive a “sharing transformation” and by Airbnb through “regulatory hacking” to influence urban policy.

WRITTEN BY

Darren Sharp

Darren Sharp is the Australian editor of Shareable, a sharing economy strategist, and the Melbourne coordinator of the Sharing Cities Network with a background in community engagement, research and consulting. As Director of Social Surplus he works with public sector clients to design programs that amplify the strengths of people and communities through sharing.